MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 41 



position, having received at some former exhibition a less pre- 

 mium than the highest ; and in this connection your committee 

 would further remark, that the improvements made by some of 

 the applicants who have no premiums awarded, are by no 

 means inferior, nay more, in more than one year within the 

 last ten, would any of them have been entitled to the Society's' 

 first premiums. 



The committee, however, did not confine their examina- 

 tions merely to the farms and orchards of those who called 

 them out, but extended their examinations and observations 

 to many farms, orchards, bogs, &c, where no premiums were 

 claimed. In doing this, the committee derive satisfaction 

 in being able to say, that farming in general is now going ahead 

 with greater speed in Middlesex than at any former period 

 within the eighteen years, while a portion of the committee 

 have had the pleasure of giving attention to some branch of 

 this service. We do not mean to say that farming is more prof- 

 itable now than ever before, but that improvements in farming, 

 in some shape or other, are greater. We are willing to believe 

 that the great temperance reform has exerted a powerful influ- 

 ence in aid of improved farming. Within the past month, we 

 have examined hundreds of acres of low lands or meadow, 

 which are in some stage of improvement, that five years since 

 were almost worthless. In some cases, where the land did not 

 produce any thing of value, now more than three tons of good 

 hay are made to the acre annually. And again, in the article 

 of compost, which is the main stay with a Middlesex farmer, 

 the preparations for making are almost incredible. The com- 

 mittee have witnessed something like forty barn cellars in 

 the course of their examinations, which have been put in a state 

 of forwardness within the last year ; and if every section of the 

 county shall be in this proportion, we are willing to believe that 

 in ten years there will be but few farmers in our county without 

 a compost manufactory under his barn. In their examination 

 of fruit trees, the committee regret to find so much disease, es- 

 pecially among the peach trees, which appears to be general, 

 and thus far no one seems to know the origin, or the antidote. 

 Notwithstanding all this, the committee have found some fine 

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